Generate Ssl Key From Csr

Generate Ssl Key From Csr 8,0/10 4152 votes

In the mean time, we encourage our customers to learn about generating CSRs and keys in our customer portal’s CSR Manager: Thank you for choosing SSL.com! If you have any questions, please contact us by email at Support@SSL.com, call 1-877-SSL-SECURE, or just click the chat link at the bottom right of this page.

What is a CSR? A CSR or Certificate Signing request is a block of encoded text that is given to a Certificate Authority when applying for an SSL Certificate. It is usually generated on the server where the certificate will be installed and contains information that will be included in the certificate such as the organization name, common name (domain name), locality, and country. It also contains the public key that will be included in the certificate. A private key is usually created at the same time that you create the CSR, making a key pair. A CSR is generally encoded using ASN.1 according to the PKCS #10 specification.

Before you can install a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate, you must first generate a certificate signing request (CSR). You can do this by using one of the following methods: (Linux® server) OpenSSL. (Microsoft® Windows® server) Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. (Cloud customers) Cloud Control Panel.
A private key is usually created at the same time that you create the CSR, making a key pair. A CSR is generally encoded using ASN.1 according to the PKCS #10 specification. A certificate authority will use a CSR to create your SSL certificate, but it does not need your private key. You need to keep your private key secret.
Apache: Generate CSR (Certificate Signing Request) Follow these instructions to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) for your Apache Web server. When you have completed generating your CSR, cut/copy and paste it into the CSR field on the SSL certificate-request page.

A certificate authority will use a CSR to create your SSL certificate, but it does not need your private key. You need to keep your private key secret. The certificate created with a particular CSR will only work with the private key that was generated with it. So if you lose the private key, the certificate will no longer work.

What is contained in a CSR?

Name	Explanation	Examples
Common Name	The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your server. This must match exactly what you type in your web browser or you will receive a name mismatch error.	*.google.com mail.google.com
Organization	The legal name of your organization. This should not be abbreviated and should include suffixes such as Inc, Corp, or LLC.	Google Inc.
Organizational Unit	The division of your organization handling the certificate.	Information Technology IT Department
City/Locality	The city where your organization is located.	Mountain View
State/County/Region	The state/region where your organization is located. This shouldn't be abbreviated.	California
Country	The two-letter ISO code for the country where your organization is location.	US GB
Email address	An email address used to contact your organization.	webmaster@google.com
Public Key	The public key that will go into the certificate.	The public key is created automatically

What does a CSR look like?

Most CSRs are created in the Base-64 encoded PEM format. This format includes the '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----' and '-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----' lines at the begining and end of the CSR. A PEM format CSR can be opened in a text editor and looks like the following example:

How do I generate a CSR and private key?

You need to generate a CSR and private key on the server that the certificate will be used on. You can find instructions in your server documentation or try the instructions from one of these certificate authorities:

Comodo CSR Generation Instructions
DigiCert CSR Generation Instructions
Entrust CSR Generation Instructions
GeoTrust CSR Generation Instructions
Thawte CSR Generation Instructions

Generate Ssl Key From Csr 10

Once you have your CSR generated, you can use our SSL Wizard to find the best SSL certificate that will meet your needs. If you are familiar with OpenSSL you can use the following command to generate a CSR and private key:

openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -out servername.csr -keyout servername.key

How do I decode a CSR?

You can easily decode your CSR to see what is in it by using our CSR Decoder. In order to decode a CSR on your own machine using OpenSSL, use the following command:

openssl req -in server.csr -noout -text

What is a CSR/Private Key's bit length?

The bit-length of a CSR and private key pair determine how easily the key can be cracked using brute force methods. As of 2016, a key size of less than 2048 bits is considered weak and could potentially be broken in a few months or less with enough computing power. If a private key is broken, all the connections initiated with it would be exposed to whomever had the key. The Extended Validation guidelines that SSL certificate providers are required to follow, require that all EV certificates use a 2048-bit key size to ensure their security well into the future. Because of this, most providers encourage 2048-bit keys on all certificates whether they are EV or not.

Originally posted on Sun Dec 7, 2008

If you want to convert your website from HTTP to HTTPS, you need to get a SSL certificate from a valid organization like Verisign or Thawte. You can also generate self signed SSL certificate for testing purpose.

In this article, let us review how to generate private key file (server.key), certificate signing request file (server.csr) and webserver certificate file (server.crt) that can be used on Apache server with mod_ssl.

Key, CSR and CRT File Naming Convention

I typically like to name the files with the domain name of the HTTPS URL that will be using this certificate. This makes it easier to identify and maintain.

Instead of server.key, I use www.thegeekstuff.com.key
Instead of server.csr, I use www.thegeekstuff.com.csr
Instead of server.crt, I use www.thegeekstuff.com.crt

1. Generate Private Key on the Server Running Apache + mod_ssl

First, generate a private key on the Linux server that runs Apache webserver using openssl command as shown below.

How To Generate Csr

The generated private key looks like the following.

2. Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

Using the key generate above, you should generate a certificate request file (csr) using openssl as shown below.

3. Generate a Self-Signed SSL Certificate

For testing purpose, you can generate a self-signed SSL certificate that is valid for 1 year using openssl command as shown below.

You can use this method to generate Apache SSL Key, CSR and CRT file in most of the Linux, Unix systems including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora and Red Hat.

4. Get a Valid Trial SSL Certificate (Optional)

Instead of signing it youself, you can also generate a valid trial SSL certificate from thawte. i.e Before spending the money on purchasing a certificate, you can also get a valid fully functional 21 day trial SSL certificates from Thawte. Once this valid certificate works, you can either decide to purchase it from Thawte or any other SSL signing organization.

This step is optional and not really required. For testing purpose, you can always use the self-signed certificate that was generated from the above step.

Go to Thwate trial certificate request page and do the following:

Select “SSL Web Server Certificate (All servers)” under the “select your trial certificate”.
Do not check the PKCS #7 check-box under the “configure certificate”
Copy/Paste the *.csr file that you generate above in the textbox under “certificate signing request (CSR)”
Click on next at the bottom, which will give you a 21-day free trial certificate.

Copy/Paste the trial certificate to the www.thegeekstuff.com.crt file as shown below.

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